Marketers in the healthcare field (as well as other marketing fields) commonly use databases of customers or potential customers (also referred to as “leads”) to generate personalized communications to promote a product or service. The method of communication can be any addressable medium, e.g., direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing, and the like.
A marketing database may combine of disparate sources of customer, lead, and/or prospect information so that marketing professionals may act on that information. In some cases, a marketing database may be included in and/or managed using an enterprise marketing management software suite.
Commonly, trade shows, trade fairs, trade exhibitions, “expos,” or other like industry-related exhibitions (collectively referred to herein as “trade shows”) may be a source of customer, lead, and/or prospect information. Additionally, third-party data providers may supply marketing-related information about doctors, pharmacists, healthcare facilities, prescriptions, procedures, and the like.
However, in many cases, such healthcare-marketing records may include errors or other invalid pieces of data that should be removed and/or corrected before inserting the data into a healthcare marketing database. Moreover, data obtained for input into a healthcare marketing database may be inconsistent in the way the same concept is represented from one record to another. For example, the professional designation “Doctor of Medicine” may be represented in different records as “Doctor of Medicine,” “M.D.,” “MD,” or other like variations. Such inconsistencies can make it difficult to identify and resolve duplicate records in the healthcare marketing database.